EkeGusii, a Language without Consonantal Clusters?

Authors

  • George Morara Anyona Lecturer, Department of Languages and literature, Kisii, Kisii University, Kenya

Keywords:

Bantu, Consonant-cluster, Nasal-consonants, Defricativization, Nasal re-syllabification, Nasal consonant- Glide

Abstract

The main objective of this study is to argue for the nonexistence of cluster of consonants in Bantu Phonology. Just like Morrison (2009) observes, the segmental status of Homorganic Nasal Consonant sequences has been a topic of debate in Bantu linguistics. While some linguists are of the opinion that these sequences are consonant clusters (Downing 2005 among others), others such as Morrison (2009), Hyman and Katamba (1990) view these sequences as single segments. In this paper, using data from EkeGusii, a Bantu language spoken in western Kenya and native speaker intuition, it is argued that Bantu languages do not allow any consonant clusters, concluding that these languages do not entertain consonant clusters of any kind.

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Published

2020-04-30

Issue

Vol. 3 No. 4

Section

Research Article

License

Copyright (c) 2020 https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/

Creative Commons License

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License.

How to Cite

Anyona, G. M. . (2020). EkeGusii, a Language without Consonantal Clusters?. International Journal of Linguistics, Literature and Translation, 3(4), 75-85. https://al-kindipublishers.org/index.php/ijllt/article/view/1085